Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) secretary Asirbad Behera and five other office-bearers of the association were grilled by the CBI on Tuesday for their connection with chit fund company Artha Tatwa (AT) Group.
Behera along with OCA joint secretary Sanjeev Dutta, OCA accountant MA Ahad, auditor Basant Behera and treasurer Satya Mohanty reached the CBI office here at around 12.30 pm and left at 1.35 pm.
During the interrogation, CBI officials quizzed Behera and his colleagues how much money the AT Group, sponsor of the first edition of the Odisha Premier league (OPl-I), had invested in the tournament, which was organised by the OCA in 2011.
After coming out of the CBI office, treasurer Mohanty told reporters that the OCA had spent more than Rs 1.5 crore in organising the OPl-I cricket tournament. The AT Group had given Rs 1 crore as sponsorship fee, he said.
Mohanty said the association had spent Rs 55 lakh in sending the Odisha Ranji team to Australia in 2011-12, Rs 57 lakh in hiring former Australian player Michael Bevan to train the Odisha Ranji players in 2011 and Rs 30 lakh towards the logo and official jerseys for the senior, junior or women teams, he added.
Notably, Behera was quizzed by the CBI for third time. On Sunday, the Central investigating agency had grilled him for around 11 hours in two phases. Earlier, the agency had interrogated him after conducting raids at his houses and the OCA office in Cuttack on August 17.
The CBI also grilled city-based Trishna Real Estate’ director Satyabrata Dhir in the afternoon for his alleged links with the AT Group. He was interrogated for about an hour and a half, but the builder did not reveal anything to the media.
Dhir, also a director of Sparsh Hospitals and Critical Care Private limited, had been interrogated by the Commissionerate police too for his AT Group links on June 5 last year. He was among the 22 persons named by AT Group chief Pradeep Sethy who had financially benefitted from him.
The CBI had raided his house in the city on August 16 this year.